1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an object-oriented system for managing resources among groups connected to one another through a network.
2. Description of the Related Art
High-performance, high-speed computers require an object-oriented or distributed network. The network must provide each user with easy operation. The network involves groups of users that use and share resources such as objects, programs, and data. It is important for the network to have a management system to maintain the security of the resources.
Restricting resources to each group will improve the security of the resources but will spoil the effectiveness thereof. Sharing the resources among the groups will improve the effectiveness thereof but will deteriorate the security of them. If the groups are allowed to use the same name on objects, an object prepared by one of the groups may be destroyed by another. Accordingly, it is important to provide a system to maintain the security of resources that are used among the groups.
There are groupware programs to handle jobs group by group, or to share jobs among groups through a network. There are no groupware programs that let one of the groups create an object and let the groups share the object. To realize this, a worker must be attached to several of the groups, to access and transfer the object among the groups.
There is no prior art that employs visual and auditory means to share and maintain the security of resources among groups of workers in real time. When a worker belonging to a first group needs data prepared by a second group, the worker of the first group must call and ask a worker of the second group to transfer the data to the first group. This is ineffective because it takes a long time.
To transfer data between groups of workers, a prior art employs an electronic mail system or magneto-optic disks instead of real-time visual means such as television systems. This prior art is troublesome.
If the security of resources is strictly maintained, it will be difficult to share the resources among groups of workers, to thereby deteriorate the workability of the groups. To solve this problem, the groups may be rearranged and the security of the resources may temporarily be released. This, however, disturbs the correct management of the workers and resources.
In this way, improving the sharing of resources and the efficiency of jobs deteriorates the security of the resources, and manually managing the resources and jobs causes trouble. To improve the workability of groups of workers, it is important to automate the management of resources, the rearrangement of the groups, and the transfer of the resources among the groups according to job procedures and conditions. Each group must independently control its own resources while flexibly shifting the resources among the groups.